Displays for goods and services play an important role in attracting buyers and making sales. They may be found in almost every place where commerce may be conducted, including retail stores and malls, supermarkets, restaurants, food courts, dining halls, hotels, craft and trade shows, event stadiums, and museums, among many other settings. In many instances, displays of articles have to be constructed quickly, and should be rapidly flexible to allow fast and easy changes. For example, elaborate displays for a trade shows often need to be set up in a matter of minutes to hours, and may need to be disassembled just as quickly at the end of the show. Restaurant displays of meal and beverage specials may change between breakfast, lunch and dinner periods, requiring fast changes three times a day or more.
One display framework that has proven to be efficient and versatile in a wide variety of public spaces and commercial environments is the post supported article display. These displays typically include plastic, wood or metal tubes or poles that can be assembled into a framework for supporting articles at a variety of heights and angles. The frameworks can be a simple as a single pole placed in the ground, to large, elaborate scaffolding assembled from hundreds or even thousands of interconnected poles.
The articles themselves are supported from the post framework by article support members attached to the poles. For example, the support members may include an internal screw thread that can be screwed onto an end of an externally threaded pole to attach the support member to the pole. There are problems with this means of attachment, such as stripping or otherwise damaging the threads on the poles and/or support members, which prevents the support member from being properly positioned on the pole.
Another conventional way for attaching an article support member to a pole includes sliding the member onto an end of a non-threaded pole, and clamping the member into place by, for example, tightening a set screw on the member against the pole. Problems with this attachment method include the requirement that at least one end of the pole be free for the member to slide over. In addition, the fastener (e.g., the set screw) is prone to overtightening, which can dent the pole and/or strip the fastener.
Sill another way to attach an article support member to a pole uses a hinged bracket that can be clamped around the pole with bolts and screws. While this method does not require that at least one end of the pole be free to accept the support member, problems such as the overtightening, stripping or loss of the threaded bolt or screw used to clamp the bracket still persist. Thus there remains a need for new devices to support articles on display frameworks (e.g., threaded and non-threaded poles) that address these and other problems with conventional article support members.